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Seed of Chucky (UK - DVD R2)

The killer doll is back for more, and this time he is as bad as ever – literally. The fifth film in the Chucky series, direc...

The killer doll is back for more, and this time he is as bad as ever – literally. The fifth film in the Chucky series, directed by its creator Don Mancini, introduces Glen (Billy Boyd) as the orphan offspring of Chucky (Brad Dourif) and Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly). When Glen resurrects his parents from the grave after a film based on their outings goes into production, he is troubled to learn how murderous they really are. As a film lover, I am equally appalled to see that this franchise still lives on.

FilmDepending on what angle you choose to view this film from, it can either be interpreted as a terrible film, or a mildly amusing one that passes as good entertainment. Personally, I think it is mediocre, just like the previous four titles in the series. It’s quite noble of Brad Dourif to continue to affiliate himself as the voice of the bloodthirsty doll for so many years now, but the series has never really struck a cord with me. Looking back on the original, I guess it was a little creepy back then, but the whole Chucky thing just looks and feels tired. In fact, I am not even sure the original idea was that good in the first place, I mean come on – a plastic doll out for blood; it’s preposterous.

Okay, I will be willing to admit that the whole point of this series is to scare and amuse in equal measure, but for me it neither scares nor amuses – on the contrary, it annoys and irritates me if anything. Chucky is, in my humble opinion, a lame stab (forgive the pun) at slasher horror originality gone awry. I just hope this latest instalment is well and truly the last, though somehow I doubt that.

On the bright side however, Seed of Chucky does have a strange nostalgic feeling to it. Perhaps because of franchise continuity, or just because of some scattered references, I cannot quite be sure. But in retrospect, the film seems to have a very distinguishable 80’s atmosphere, which in some ways does give it a slight boost. It was this feeling that cast my mind back to the genuine horror films of that time – Evil Dead, Halloween and Friday the 13th to name a but a few. Chucky always wanted to be on par with the aforementioned, but in every one of its five efforts it has fallen flat on its back. Chucky, go back to your toy box and stay there!

VideoAs is the case with most bad films, the video transfer is respectably good. Images are reasonably sharp and highly detailed, with colours looking quite natural and varied. With the dolls being the stars of the film, their appearance is good, if not excellent on the whole, with every strand of hair and textures of their clothing highly distinguishable. This is a sharp looking transfer, and one that is marred only by slight noise levels.

AudioYou have the option of a Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 soundtrack on this disc, and both are as good as each other. I usually prefer the normally richer sounding DTS, but in this instance neither is the clear-cut choice for audio lovers. On both, you can expect decent LFE and good, clean sounding dialogue. Direction effects are so-so, and not always present when you really would expect them.

ExtrasUp first is an audio commentary from writer/director Don Mancini and Tiffany actress Jennifer Tilly. It is a decent commentary, but would have benefited from some other cast members. 'Family Hell-iday' is a weird feature that has all three dolls showing us their vacation slideshow. The twist is that most of the slides have some sort of dead person in them that Chucky has mischievously killed.

'Conceiving The Seed of Chucky' is a twenty minute ‘making of’ featurette that again has the dolls doing most of the talking, while also looking at some of the general production issues. ‘Jennifer Tilly's diary’ is a text feature that most will probably skip, while ‘Fuzion’ is has a small interview segment with the Chucky doll. Lastly, we have a cast and crew biography section.

OverallSeed of Chucky will likely please fans of the long-running series, but for the rest of us craving something a little more inspirational, not to mention scary, there are certainly better horror flicks out there to satisfy most of your needs. The DVD is also quite mixed, with good audio and video aspects but mostly poor special features. Buy only if you are sure. Or perhaps rent it if there’s absolutely nothing in the store that takes your fancy.